Crossroad Keep
Crossroad Keep is a fortress along the High Road south of Neverwinter. It plays a major role in the official campaign. Initially, it is the stronghold of one of the main antagonists, Black Garius. In Act II, the player confronts Black Garius at the Keep and he is subsequently killed, after which Lord Nasher rewards the player with command of the Keep. The player can then recruit soldiers, build fortifications and shops, and basically run their own land from the keep. The keep also becomes one of the main sites of battle against the forces of the King of Shadows in the official campaign. Rebuilding When the keep first comes into the PC's possession, the area is almost completely in ruins due to neglect. The surrounding areas and the keep itself must be repaired in order to attract merchants, peasants, and other recruits that will aid the PC in his/her cause. Lord Nasher grants the player a stipend of 70,000 gold to help refurbish the keep in order to raise further funds and prepare the keep for war. The player can also pay keep fees directly out of his/her pocket. Indeed, it is highly recommended that the player save as much gold as possible as repairing the keep is anything but cheap. As it is possible to end with over 3.2 million gold in Crossroad Keep's treasury you can withdraw and use , (This guy made 33 million) you can sell almost anything you have and (as long as the merchants in question are still accessible) buy back even pricey items later. *Keep Interior **Personal Suite - 15,000 gold. Contains a locked drawer to store equipment. **West Wing - 15,000 gold. Grants access to the War Room which contains the key to the locked drawer in the personal suite. **Library - 15,000 gold. This area will be automatically rebuilt by Nasher in Act III if the PC hasn't already done so. *Courtyard **Smithy - 10,000 gold. Allows PC to recruit a blacksmith and an armorer to improve Greycloak troop equipment. **Merchant Shop - 10,000 gold. Allows PC to recruit two general merchants. *Fortifications - Increases Land Security and draws more peasants which in turn bolsters militia. Each upgrade increases Land Security once by 10 points (no per time unit benefit). **Patching up the Walls - 25,000 gold **Reinforcing the Walls - 50,000 gold **Building Towers on the outer walls with arrow slits - 75,000 gold *Surrounding Areas - Increases Road Security which in turn draws more merchants and funds. Each upgrade increases Road Security once by 10 points (no per time unit benefit). These upgrades significantly increase Keep income (1.875 income multiplier with best upgrades). **Widening the trail to the keep for merchants - 10,000 gold **Cobbling the trail - 35,000 gold **Extensive work on nearby roads - 50,000 gold **Bridges and Watch Towers - 100,000 gold *Old Church Ruins - Available only in Act III and can be converted into either a church or monastery. **Church of Tyr - 50,000 gold. Offers a quest for good-aligned paladin or cleric PCs to acquire a special weapon. For evil-aligned PCs, the church offers a chance for redemption. **Sun Soul Monastery - 75,000 gold. Offers a special quest for monk PCs to get extra training and feats. *Tower - Available only in Act III and can be used as either a headquarters for the Neverwinter Nine or a Wizard's Tower. One time increase of Land Security by 10 points. **Neverwinter Nine Guard Tower - 50,000 gold. Offers a chance for the PC to spar with Nevalle and gain +1 BAB boost. Also has a merchant that sells items tailored towards the non-spellcasting classes. **Wizard's Tower - 100,000 gold. Has a wizard's merchant that sells items for alchemy and equipment for the spellcasting classes. Residents Aside from the PC and companions, certain NPCs also take up residence at the keep if the PC recruits them or certain requirements are met. Automatic *'Aldanon' - serves as the keep sage. Joins automatically at the end of Act II or earlier if the library is rebuilt. *'Daeghun' - serves as a scout. Joins automatically in Act III. *'Kana' - adjutant and handles the keep's day to day operations. Automatically joins the keep. *'Nevalle' - serves as Nasher's liaison. Automatically joins in Act III. *'Sal' - owns the Phoenix Tail Inn. Automatically joins the keep. Depending on the number of merchants and peasants, he will also recruit minstrels and bards to sing at the inn. Note that due to a bug he is actually present both at the Keep Inn and the Sunken Flagon tavern in the Docks in Neverwinter. *'Uncus' - serves as a fence (buys stolen goods). If the PC is a member of the Shadow Thieves, he also serves as a second 'unofficial' adjutant that helps the PC run a corrupt keep and also serves as Axle's liaison. He joins automatically if the PC is a Shadow Thief but City Watch PCs have the option of turning him away. *'Master Veedle' - in charge of repairs to the keep and the surrounding areas. Automatically joins the keep. Recruitable *'Bevil Starling' - serves as a sergeant. Joins in Act III if the PC talks to him in Act II before West Harbor is destroyed. Note that there are several bugs in his conversation file that may make it impossible to recruit him for the Keep while speaking to him at West Harbor after becoming the Keep's Captain. Strangely enough, he still spawns at the Keep later on and can be recruited there. *'Caelryna Seerar' - serves as a merchant. Can be recruited once she is rescued on Mount Galardrym. *'Calindra' - serves as a miner and gives the PC gold for each ore deposit discovered. Can be recruited by the PC in Port Llast if the PC helps her find her missing friend. *'Deekin Scalesinger' - serves as a merchant. Can be recruited in Neverwinter's Merchant Quarter after the Merchant's Shop is built by Veedle. *'Edario' - serves as an armorer for the Greycloaks. Can be recruited at Highcliff but can't upgrade them until his shop is built and least one of the miners (Pentin or Calindra) has been recruited to collect ore from the veins the PC has discovered. *'Guyven of the Road' - serves as a scout. Can be recruited if the PC finds him at the Bonegnasher Approach (Act I), Githyanki Approach (Act I), and at Ember (Act II) and is nice to him at each encounter. He has a history of being bugged and may not always appear - in order to recruit him for the keep, you need to tell him "You will always have a place at my fire" when talking to him for the third time. However, while talking to him, it is possible to miss this conversation option. *'Ivarr the Blessed' - serves as a priest at the church of Tyr. Joins only if the PC decides to build the church ruins into a Church of Tyr. *'Jacoby' - serves as a weaponsmith for the Greycloaks. Can be recruited at Fort Locke only after the smithy is built. *'Jalboun of the Two Blades' - serves as a sergeant. Joins only if the PC bribes him and manages to keep him alive during the battle with Sydney Natale. *'Joy' - dances at the Phoenix Tail Inn and increases Keep income by 10%. Can be recruited by the PC in the Neverwinter Merchant Quarter near Blacklake Gate during Act III. *'Katriona' - serves as a sergeant. Can be recruited at Old Owl Well. *'Khulmar' - liaison for the Ironfist clan. Joins the keep only if an alliance is forged between Neverwinter and the Ironfist Dwarves. *'Kistrel' - knits the PC a cloak. Joins only if it is befriended by the PC in the Glowstone Cave. *'Lasshiva' - liaison for Batha's lizardfolk tribe. Joins only if an alliance is forged between Neverwinter the Lizardfolk. *'Light of Heavens' - serves as a sergeant. Can only be recruited if the PC defeats her 3 times in a duel. *'Mephasm' - offers to enchant the PC's items for a price (the PC must give him his/her "most prized possession" - a weapon or armor - at end of 3 transactions). Can be summoned in Act III if the PC bargains with him. There are severe bugs that prevent the game from checking the favorite item properly. In particular, Mephasm will take the favorite weapon instead of favorite armor from arcane spellcasters and will take away the Silver Sword of Gith from you if that's your favorite weapon. Unofficial patches are available, but the official patches do not fix these bugs. *'Orlen' - helps to look after the farm land and manage the peasants. Can be recruited by the PC at West Harbor during Act II before it is destroyed. *'Pentin' - serves as a miner that gives the PC ingots for each ore deposit discovered. Can be recruited at Old Owl Well only if he was previously saved from the orcs in the Bonegnasher Lair. *'Rolan' - passes on his secret teachings to the PC if he/she is a monk. Joins only if the Sun Soul Monastery is built. *'Startear' - takes residence in the keep only if the Wizard's Tower is built. *'Torio Claven' - provides information for potential recruits. Joins only if the PC saves her from execution and requests that she be transferred to the keep. *'Wolf' - provides quick travel around the keep. You must have a good reputation with the beggar children of Neverwinter (side with them during any event in the city). If you recruit NPCs for the Keep, many of them will remain in their old locations, along with their new counterparts at the Keep: * Deekin remains in the Merchant Quarter * Bevil remains in West Harbor (well, actually it isn't even possible to recruit him due to several bugs, but even if it were possible, the player would end up with two Bevils - one at West Harbor, second one at the Keep) * Jacoby remains in Fort Locke * Sal remains in Duncan's tavern in the Docks However as of 1.23 they all are removed appropriately except for Jacoby, who may still be found in Fort Locke. Companions This lists the locations of your companions in the keep when they are not in your party. Note that unlike the Sunken Flagon companions in your party will continue to follow you & will not be found in their designated positions. *'Khelgar Ironfist' - Phoenix Tail Inn near the counter *'Neeshka' - Phoenix Tail Inn behind Khelgar *'Elanee' - Courtyard next to the merchant shop *'Qara' - Keep in the hall by the library entrance *'Grobnar Gnomehands' - Keep basement near the workbenches *'Casavir' - Keep interior opposite from Torio Claven *'Bishop' - Phoenix Tail Inn near the entrance *'Sand' - Keep inside the library *'Zhjaeve' - City Watch Headquarters in Neverwinter *'Ammon Jerro' - Keep basement near the summoning circle *'Construct' - Keep basement in front of the workbenches Events Events are usually triggered if the Keep stats (such as number of peasants and merchants) meet a certain requirement. *Ziffer and Village Charter - triggers if there are 30 or more peasants at the keep. Offers the PC a chance to get more taxes thus increasing the keeps fund. It is recommended to only lightly tax them or not at all. *Ziffer's men volunteer to be Greycloaks - triggers only if the Village charter is signed and Unrest is low and the peasants are not taxed heavily. Bolsters the Greycloack ranks. It is recommended that only the men that meet the standards be accepted if not overall Greycloak quality will decrease permanently (and you can gracefully do so with Diplomacy). Note that accepting Ziffer's men will most probably increase Unrest by 1, because the overall number of soldiers is bolstered by Ziffer's volunteers and if the number of soldier units is greater than the double number of peasants, unrest is increased by 1. Since Ziffer's cutscene triggers when peasants are at 30, you basically end up with at least 90 soldiers (50 from Nasher, at least 40 from Ziffer) vs. ~80 (30-40 peasants * 2). *Captain's Company - triggers if recruitment standards are the highest, allowing you to reach "Best of the Best" Greycloak Training, and if Katriona is recruited. +20% morale, -10 Unit Strength. The bonus is bugged, it actually adds a flat 20 to morale, but since morale is capped at 6 anyway, it just rises to 6. Unit Strength diminishment is not properly implemented and will do absolutely nothing. *Merchant Caravan - triggers if there are 50 or more merchants at the keep. The PC gets to choose one of the 3 merchant Caravans to set shop at the keep, or none of them. If the PC's Appraise skill is high enough to know about each Caravan, you may choose that dialogue option but be subject to major alignment shifts (+10 for Circle of Friends or Fated Winds). If that dialogue option is not available or you choose not to use it, you are more or less choosing blindly, so the shifts are minor (+1). **The Circle of Friends: Civility +1; +1 Lawful or +10 Lawful with Appraise **Forgotten Lords: Civility +1, Tithe +10%, +1 Chaotic with or without Appraise **Fated Winds: Civility -2, Tithe +25%, +1 Chaotic or +10 Chaotic and +10 Evil with Appraise **none (merchant number cap lowered from 100 to 50). *Raven's Allies - triggers after 3 events. Accepting the Raven Allies Mercenaries will decrease Greycloak civility and quality but adds +25% to unit strength. *Dobson - triggers only for City Watch players, 13 or more time units after acquisition of the Keep. Make an example of Dobson (lawful shift, civility +2, morale -2, merchant growth -1.0%), pardon Dobson (chaotic shift, morale +1, merchant growth +0.5%), try to extort gold (chaos shift, civility -1, morale +1, merchant growth +1.0%). If you have enough Appraise, you can get a better understanding of the situation and explain it to both of them. *Sheriff from Leeves - triggers if Land Security is 10 or more, City Watch player only. Success increases morale by 1 and peasant growth by 1. Success or failure is calculated based on the current unit strength, not on the unit strength available at the time the troops were deployed, so 50% in this case may be a much higher number than actually deployed. *Daerred and his group - triggers 3 times through the campaign at specific key points. If the PC accepts them and gives them legitimate work (by asking them to investigate Port Llast, then the King of Shadows, then the Illefarn Empire), they will survive their quest and give the PC a gift. If the PC has lied to them, or given them the mission to investigate the guardian, they end up dead in the King of Shadows' lair. *Receive gift from Greycloaks - triggers only in Act III if the all sergeants have been recruited, greycloaks have best weapons and armor, training is best of the best and greycloak quality is elite, morale is high and Captain's Company is formed. Greycloak Special Missions These special mission are made available only during certain keep times. Keep time increases 2.5% every time you enter a new area in the keep (moving from the courtyard to the keep interior). The outcome of the special missions depends on how well trained and equipped the Greycloacks are. It is recommended to assign Jalboun to special missions (and only special missions) since he increases their outcome by 3 points; he causes more harm than good elsewhere. The mission outcome has a very substantial impact on land & road security, Keep morale and peasant growth. Some missions improve the greycloak training. *Old Man Morris - 10%<=KT<=15%. *Doman the Ogre - 20%<=KT<=25% and Jacoby must have been recruited. *Escort Tax Collectors - KT=27.5%, 10 or more peasants and the Tax rate > 0. *Bugbears - 37.5%<=KT<=45%. *Undead Scouts - 52.5%<=KT<=62.5% *Shadow Priest - 70%<=KT<=77.5% *Find Shadow Reaver's base - 85%<=KT<=100% and acquired the True Name Scrolls from Sydney. Note: :These missions can become bugged when a mission is started but not allowed to end. Please refer to the Bugs section below for the description of this problem and a solution. Keep Ruler Feats If the PC meets certain requirements, he/she also gains an epithet feat which reflects his/her lordship over the keep. *Warden of the Keep - Greycloak civility and morale must be high, the Church of Tyr must be built, Joy and Light of Heavens must have been recruited, Uncus and Caelryna must not be in the keep and the PC must be good aligned. ''Update: you may be evil aligned and still obtain this feat. All other qualifiers still apply. ''You can not become Warden if you joined the thieves in Act I, as joining the thieves prevents you from refusing Uncus. *Dreadlord of the Keep - Greycloak civility must be low, the Wizard's Tower must be built, Uncus and Caelryna must have been recruited, Joy and Light of Heavens must not be in the keep, the Church of Tyr must not be built, and the PC must be evil aligned. You can not become Dreadlord if you joined the citywatch in Act I. This is not a restriction itsef, but later you can not bring the greycloak civility down by giving Uncus these special orders and Greycloak civility will stop at medium. Bugs *Special missions may get stuck and never complete if you reassign men while they are on a special mission (only happens on missions with a duration >=2 time units, because usually Kana leaves the castle and you can't reassign men, but if a mission takes longer to complete, she returns and you can reassign the men before the special mission is over, thus breaking this mission as well as all following special missions). The dialog option which allows you to reassign men should not be available until the mission is down to 0 time units. Example: You tell Kana to take care of the Ogre's Revenge quest. She exits the Keep interior. Exit the Keep, then re-enter and she will be there again. The special mission is still running, but despite that, you can still talk to Kana and re-assign your men (let's say to Patrol the Land). If you do, it should actually be clear to you that you've just re-assigned your men from a special mission to patrolling! So this mission will never complete, since there is no way to re-assign men back to a special mission and since all following special missions depend on completion of previous ones, no new special missions will be ever given. If you assign men to a special mission right before a time cap (which trigger if you need to proceed in the main quest), you don't need to worry: while Kana will say that you should check back later, once you proceed in the main quest the time cap will be removed and the special mission will be properly completed, AS LONG AS you don't reassign men from a special mission to something else. Also, due to a bug, special mission 6 will not become available until special mission 7 is available. Actually, spec mission 6 should be available between time units 28 and 33 and spec mission 7 between time units 34 and 40. Also, the mission outcome checks for both mission 6 and 7 are buggy - it checks spec op mission 5 success conditions instead of mission 6/7 conditions. When Kana reports the mission 6 and 7 results, the success/failure checks are not performed properly, so the result will always be success, even if it's a total failure. Also, due to another bug, the rewards for mission 6 are not given if it's total success. *The smart tithe variable is not set properly (set as a local INT, but checked as a global INT, so always returns 0), so you will never get a bonus to merchant growth, nor a free bonus to merchant taxes, even if you pass the Appraise check with Kana ("Appraise How are tithes handled exactly?"). *Keep Timer will advance by 1 TU (time unit) if you just talk to Veedle, but don't actually order him to build anything. This way all time units may be wasted. TUs should only be increased if you actually tell him to build something. *Many bugs were introduced by Obsidian in the process of switching from Hollows to Crossroad Keep: Morale bonuses were originally based on a 100 scale in earlier versions of the game, while the release version has a morale score between -6 and 6, but some decisions like building the Captain's Company still give you a +10 or +20 bonus to morale, which was supposed to be a percentage, but due to changes introduced in the final version of the game these numbers turn into a flat 10/20 bonus, allowing you to max out morale right away. Also, although Kana tells you that the implementation of the Captain's Company will reduce the overall unit strength, it's never actually reduced, because the script was never finished (unit strength, which represents the overall strength of your troop based on various factors like morale and training, is supposed to drop by 10). Other conversations give you a bonus to the Land Security modifier (a percentage bonus by which land security is increased every time unit), which isn't even implemented in scripting in the final version of the game. The game gives you civility bonuses based on long outdated variables that aren't used in the final game version, resulting in no increase to civility. Depending on your decisions, the game may give the Daerred adventurer troop ability bonuses that are not used in the final version. Injuries and losses are not properly implemented, so assigning a sergeant to Ogre's Revenge special mission is pointless, as a presence of a sergeant will result in a reduction of injuries sustained by your soldiers during this mission, but since injuries are not implemented properly anyway, it really doesn't matter. *Training time is supposed to increase for higher training levels. However, due to a bug, each training level increase takes a single time unit. Assigning sergeants to training has no effect. *Training slipping is not implemented properly - once your unit strength reaches 150, 300, and 600, Kana is supposed to warn you that there are too many men and training is slipping, training is supposed to go down by 1 at this point, however, in the final version of the game, Kana will only warn you once (on 150) and training will NOT be decreased, despite her warning. *Orlen will act as if there are enough peasants in the Keep, even if there are actually not enough (he's supposed to complain if there are less than 30 peasants at the Keep, but the check for peasants number is bugged). *The Golemcraft book in the Keep's library is not removed if the player party already has a copy in their possession (you can get one earlier while saving Aldanon), which may result in player ending up with two copies. *Jacoby's, Deekin's, Uncus's, Edario's, and Caelryna Seerar's stores are using an outdated and buggy store/appraise function which was fixed and updated in later game patches, all merchants in Neverwinter use the new fixed function, but Obsidian forgot to fix the merchants at Crossroad Keep. Also, Deeken's store is supposed to improve twice (new items and his prices go down) once you improve the Keep, but this is never triggered, as Deekin's conversation is horribly bugged. *Land and Road sergeant security modifiers are still applied even if soldiers are assigned a different activity. This doesn't make any sense, as it would imply Katriona is patrolling the roads and the lands AT ONCE all by HERSELF, increasing their security by 5, just by her presence. Also, this is inconsistent with other activities: For example, if you assign a sergeant to training or recruiting, you obviously only get the sergeant bonus if the soldiers themselves are assigned the same activity as well. Deleted Content *Kana was originally supposed to be recruited first by the PC before she takes post at the keep. *Teelah from the Moonstone Mask was supposed to arrive at the keep seeking refuge because she missed her caravan that was headed for Waterdeep. If the PC allows her to stay, she dances in the Phoenix Tail Inn. *Another dancer named Jazren was supposed to arrive as well and dance at the Inn. *There was supposed to be another area in the keep that needed to be rebuilt. It could either be turned into a gambling den by Uncus or a park by Naevan. *After completing the Sheriff of Leeves event, if the Greycloaks were successful two Halflings were supposed to take residence in the keep. *When selecting a merchant caravan for the Keep, Calindra and Jacoby were supposed to offer advice on this matter. The dialogs are there, complete with voice-over, but they never play, because both NPCs are not in the same area as Kana and the player. Tidbits *It was originally intended that the PC's base of operations would have been the Hollows, a burnt down tavern in the docks district of Neverwinter. Most likely it is the burnt down building next to the Flagon, as it stands out as being the only ruin within Neverwinter itself. Category:Official campaign locations